Making great games for kids isn't exactly child's play.

At GDC 2014, Activision Blizzard's Gareth Griffiths took the stage to exaplain how, when children are your game's core audience, you can't rely solely on traditional techniques for running playtesting studies.

Instead, argues Griffiths, devs must adapt to ensure the participants are able to give meaningful responses. Using Skylanders Swap Force as an example, he outlined how Activision Blizzard ran successful studies with children, and the techniques the Skylanders team developed to collect and make sense of the data.

It was a neat talk that cited examples from actual studies to show how children of differing ages uncover a diverse range of issues - from character creation to level design. If you missed it in person, you can now watch it for free via the official GDC YouTube channel.

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its new YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

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